Magic the Roleplaying Useful Terms

Game Converted Mana Cost (CMC). This refers to

the total amount of mana needed to cast a
This is a tabletop roleplaying game that is
card, ignoring color. So a card costing 3RR
played exclusively with Magic the Gathering
would have a CMC of 5.
cards. You will play a character, and your
game statistics and abilities will be
determined by Magic cards. In play, you will
use a deck of basic lands to decide your
outcome. You will need:
● A Fate Deck. This is the randomizer.
It consists of 2 basic lands of each
type and a single Waste.
● Many basic lands, including Wastes.
● A stack of MTG cards. It may be
helpful if they’re sorted by color or by
plane, as you may want all the parts
of a dungeon or settlement to be
thematically linked.
● A stack of humanoid creature cards. Allied Colors. The colors next to each other
These are how you create characters, on the color wheel are allied. White is allied
and make for better NPCs than oozes to Blue and Green.
do. Enemy Colors. The colors opposite each
● Counters, or notecards. You’ll need to other on the color wheel. White is an enemy
track life totals, plus other effects to Black and Red.
that use counters.
Colorless. Colorless is not a color, and does
Helpful Hint. you can use scryfall.com to not have allied or enemy colors. Wastes
replicate a pile of random cards. Enter your produce colorless mana.
criteria, and then replace the “search” in the
url with “random”. I’ve provided several
such links here. All images and logos belong to Wizards of the
Coast. This is an unaffiliated fan project.
Your Character
You have several important character
statistics
Starting Life. This represents your health.
Your current life total changes to this value
at the start of each day. This occurs even if
your current life total is greater than your
Starting Life.
Creature Types. This defines who you are
and what skills you have. If you have the
creature type Archer, you have all the skills
an archer would have. If you have the
creature type Elf, you have knowledge of Elf
customs.
Power. Your ability to deal damage in
non-magical combat
Toughness. Your ability to mitigate damage
in non-magical combat.
Lands. These represent your character's
power. They’re used actively to cast spells,
but they also determine a lot about your
character.
Total Available Land Equivalent (TALE).
This is the total amount of mana you could
produce with your lands. For example, if you
have three wastes, a forest, and a mountain
your TALE is 3RG. You can only have active
character cards with cost equal to or less
than your TALE.
Equip Limit. This is like your TALE, but
only counts your Wastes. This determines
how many artifacts you can equip.
Character Creation
Draw a random common Creature card of
CMC 4 or less. It should be humanoid. This
is your starting Character Card. Click Here
for a Random Starting Character Card
Now, choose 4 basic lands (Plains, Islands,
Swamps, Mountains, Forests, Wastes). Your
TALE must be enough to cast your starting
Character Card.
If you chose 2 Wastes, get 1 bonus Waste. If
you took 3 or 4 Wastes, get 2 bonus Wastes.
You have the Power, Toughness, and
Creature Types of your card. You have 10
Starting Life. You have all the abilities of
your card. Your GM will help you determine
what they do.
Draw three random common instants or
sorceries that you could cast. These are your
starting spells. Click here for random spells:
White, Blue, Black, Red, Green
Progression. You need 10 experience points
to level up. When you loot an Artifact or get
a rescued NPC back to safety, each group
member gains XP equal to its converted
mana cost.
When you level up, get +2 HP and choose to
get a new Basic Land or 2 Wastes.
Gaining New Character Cards. When you
complete a character’s questline, defeat a
boss enemy, or receive training from
someone, you receive their Creature card. If
you have enough leftover TALE to
accommodate its cost, you can add it to your
Character Cards. This is permanent. You can
also hold onto that Character Card for later.
When you add a new Character Card, you
add its Power and Toughness to your own.
You gain all its abilities. You get its Creature
Types, but this is not necessarily literal. If
you add an Elf card, you might learn the
ways and culture of the elves.
 Spells
I drew these three black spells

Shadowfeed.
Destroy a corpse or
permanently delete
a spell from
someone’s mind and
regain 3 life.

Never Happened.
Look at the spells
someone can cast or
has already cast
today. Then,
permanently delete
one. You can also
make corpses and
broken objects
Example Character disappear.
Above is the starting Character Card.
Later on, we will discuss how your GM will
convert a magic card into RPG terms, but it
is already done here for the example.
Taste of Blood.
He’s a 5/1 Human Warlock. He’s fast, but A very simple spell.
must take an attack action every turn if able. Deals 1 damage to
If he dies with a little mana untapped, he any character, and
can activate his last ability. He goes to his then you gain 1 life.
final rest to give someone an invincibility
counter. It will make them unable to die for
the rest of the day.
So he’s an aggressive character, who gets
into the action. But between the ability to From the spells, this character feels like a
save characters after death, and the cute quasi-vampiric assassin. Gets in, kills a
monster in his arms, he’s also a lover of target, deletes the evidence. Feeds on
animals. people's minds and bodies.
The Scene
Play takes place in scenes. A scene is a
discrete piece of action that happens in a
single place. If you go somewhere else or all
the problems conclude, it becomes a new
scene.
Keep your lands, spells and character cards
in front of you. At the start of a scene, all
your cards untap.
In a round, each player gets a turn. Turn
order is determined by whoever has Haste,
and then by whoever has the greatest
number of lands that match the current
terrain. This can be the sum of two different
land types, such as in a rainforest. Cities and
other man-made places count for Wastes.
Chance
When you attempt something difficult, you
will draw from the Fate deck. This deck
contains two basic lands of each type and
one Wastes. The GM will determine what
type of land you need to draw to succeed.
Plains. Commanding, organization, helping
others.
Islands. Thinking, planning, being rational.
Swimming, sailing, flying.
Swamps. Subterfuge, lying, dealing with the
underbelly.
Mountains. Destruction, art, emotion.
Forests. Tracking, animals, plants.
Wastes. Interacting with alien things.
If you draw the land, you succeed. If you
draw an allied land, you partially succeed.
Otherwise, you fail. If possible, the GM
should tailor the outcome to the type of land
drawn.
Extra Draws. If you have any lands of the
needed type, draw an extra card. If the GM
believes you have a creature type relevant to
the task, draw another additional card.
Combat
When violence breaks out, use these rules.
Determine the turn order.
Actions. On your turn you may do two
actions from the following:
● Move. Move around. You can use
both your actions to retreat, fleeing
the scene.
● Cast a Spell. Tap your lands to pay
for a spell’s cost. Then, put that spell
into your graveyard. When you sleep
for the night, you regain all your
spells.
● Activate an Ability. Use an activated
ability you have access to. Pay any
costs. If they require tapping, tap
your character card.
● Interact. Many interactions, such as
opening doors, are free. But if you
must draw from the Fate deck, it
takes an action.
● Attack. You and your target each
draw a random card. Add your power
to its CMC. Each of you deals damage
to the other equal to that total,
reduced by their toughness.
Reactions. In a round, you get a single
reaction. You choose to use your reaction
after another character declares an action,
but before it takes effect. You can use it for
any of the following:
● Attack of Opportunity. Attack
someone taking the Move action to
move out of melee range, as per the
Attack action.
● Cast an Instant. Instant spells can
be cast much quicker than sorceries.
This uses all the same rules as the
Cast a Spell action.
● Activate an Ability. Unless they say
otherwise, abilities can be activated
at the speed of Instants.
Card Interpretation
This will require some creativity on a GM’s
part. Judge based on art wherever possible.
What follows are some guidelines for the
most common effects you’ll see.
Basic Rules
Almost all effects end at the start of a new
day. Counters are removed, spells return
from exile, emblems are lost.
All non-damage removal effects only work
on targets with equal or lesser CMC than the
spell or source of the effect.
If a creature would be destroyed, but is
saved by the above rule, they lose half their
remaining Life. If they would be exiled, they
are instead exiled for one of their turns.
“All” or “Each” refer to each thing in the
scene.
All player characters are creatures for the
purpose of spells. They have mana cost
equal to their TALE.
The GM decides if an effect refers to a game
piece or the abstract concept. For example, if
an effect refers to Lands, they decide if it
affects the Lands controlled by player
characters, or the physical land in the scene.
The Golden Rule. The Game Master has the
final say on what a card does, and can ignore
the guidelines here if it makes for a better
game. If the Game Master can’t figure out
what a card should do, discard it and draw
another.
Creatures
Creature cards are characters, animals, and
monsters. They have all their card statistics,
plus lands equal to their mana cost. They
have Starting Life equal to their CMC.
Boss creatures have double the number of
lands and double the Starting Life.
Instants and Sorceries
Instant and Sorcery cards are spells that
people can cast. Both players and NPCs cast
spells the same way. You can find or buy
them as spellbooks, which teach the spell to
a single person, then burn up.
Lands and Enchantments
Land and Enchantment cards describe a
location. The Lands describe the physical
place, and any Enchantments are magical
effects that pervade the place. Everyone in
that location is subject to them.
If these cards have non-mana activated
abilities, anyone in them can use them. They
also untap at the start of scenes.
Artifacts
Artifact cards can be treasure you may find
in chests, or in the possession of others.
They are split into Small (Ones you could
carry on your person) and Large. You equip
Small Artifacts, and you must go to Large
Artifacts to use them.
You can only equip Small Artifacts with
combined cost equal to your Equip Limit.
You can only use a Large Artifact if its cost is
equal to or lower than your Equip Limit.
Treasure Tokens
In addition to their normal effect, Treasure
tokens are the currency of this world. If you
would be paid for completing a quest, you’re
paid in Treasure Tokens. A typical reward is
Treasure tokens equal to the CMC of a boss
you defeated.
Buying and Selling. Artifacts can be sold
for their CMC worth of treasure tokens. You
can buy artifacts and spells in towns with
those treasure tokens. The cost is equal to
the CMC.
Planeswalkers
Planeswalker cards represent gods. They are
not material beings, but they can affect the
material world.
This game takes a historical lens on worship,
only priests and cultists are devoted to a
single god. You can worship as many as you
like.
Loyalty. Your group can go to a temple, and
receive the card for the aspect that they
worship. It starts with 0 loyalty counters.
Loyalty is tracked for the whole group
collectively.
Whenever you complete a quest, if it was
aligned with the purposes of that god, put a
loyalty counter on it.
If you take an action against a temple, or an
action opposed to a god’s purposes, remove
a loyalty counter. For example, burning
books would remove loyalty from a Tamiyo,
as research and knowledge are her domain.
If it’s a particularly egregious offence, more
loyalty can be removed.
As long as you have loyalty equal to or
greater than their starting loyalty, you are
considered Blessed. This is mostly a social
standing. Blessed characters can always find
shelter in a temple of that god.
Calling for Aid. If you could cast the
Planeswalker card representing your god,
you can activate one of their loyalty abilities
once per day as an action..
Each person capable of casting the card can
activate one ability per day.
Some guidelines for Planeswalker abilities.
● If they cost loyalty, remove that many
counters.
● Instead of adding loyalty, + abilities
add that much mana in one of the
Planeswalker’s colors. If you don’t use
it this turn, you lose it.
● If they have a passive ability, you
must be Blessed to activate it. It
becomes active for the rest of the day.
● If the card refers to itself in a way
that does not make sense, it instead
refers to whoever activated the
ability.
● Emblems, like all game length effects,
last until the end of the day.
New Planeswalker Cards. You can have as
many different gods as you want, but only
one aspect of a single god. If you go to a
temple of a new aspect, you can swap to
their aspect. You keep all loyalty from your
old aspect of that god.
Common Card Text
Timing
● The Game. A day is equivalent to a
game. At the start of each day, each
creature’s life total returns to their
Starting Life, all counters and
emblems are removed, all Instants
and Sorceries return from exile, all
non-treasure tokens disappear.
● The Turn. A scene is equivalent to a
turn. All cards untap at the start of
each scene.
Triggers
● Enter the battlefield. Once per day,
as they arrive in a scene.
● Beginning of Combat. Right before
they take the attack action.
● When… Attacks. When they take the
attack action.
● When… Blocks. When they are
targeted with the attack action.
● Upkeep. Beginning of the scene
● End Step. End of the scene
Targets
● Controller/Owner. Either the target,
or whoever controls the target (Such
as a Dungeon Boss), whichever makes
more sense.
Zones
● Hand. A nearby base of operations, or
nearest equivalent. Lacking that, the
last real bed they slept in.
● Battlefield. In the scene
● Graveyard. Both the dead, the
destroyed, and spells that have
already been cast today.
● Library. Your homeland, or
somewhere equivalent.
● Exile. Lost in another plane.
Effects
● Damage. Deals that much damage.
● Loss or Gain of Life. Raises or lowers
HP that much. You can go above your
Starting Life, but you will return to
your Starting Life the next day.
● Drawing a Card. Gain a piece of
useful information or gain a useful
mundane item (depending on flavor)
● Searching for a Card. Get an answer
to a question of your choice or an
item of your choice (depending on
flavor)
● Discarding a Card. Losing a piece of
information, a useful item, or a spell
they have prepared.
● Scry. Receive a vision of a place, in
the past, present or future. Scry 1
only visual, 2 includes sound, 3 allows
you to move around.
● Extra Turn. Either travel back in
time to the start of your turn, or slow
down time enough to act twice.
● Create Tokens. Creating a magical
construct.
● Counters. Counters modify qualities
until the end of the day.
● Creatures you control. Allied
creatures in this scene.
● Return an Instant or Sorcery to
Hand. Put a spell you’ve cast back in
front of you.
● Milling. Forgetting important things.
● Lands. If you gain or lose lands
(searching for one, sacrificing one),
that lasts until the end of the day.
● Lose the Game. Die.
● Win the Game. Achieve your
objective in this scene. The results
are limited by the flavor of the source
of this effect.
Keywords Examples
● Deathtouch. Poisons anyone they
Prevent all
damage. Unless they find an antidote
damage that
or gain life through magic, they will
would be dealt to
die in 24 hours.
your allies (but
● Defender. Can’t move from what
not you) until the
they’re defending.
end of the scene.
● Changeling. You can shapeshift to
appear like other races. This does not
affect draws from the Fate deck
● First Strike. Does damage before the
other party.
● Double Strike. Does both First Strike
and regular damage.
● Equip X. You must pay this cost to
don this equipment. After that, it
This location is
stays on all day.
ever shifting,
● Flash. Will surprise or ambush you.
changing from
● Flying. Can fly. You still take damage
one type to
when you attack ground targets.
another.
● Haste. Can move significantly faster
than any creature without haste. Once per scene
● Hexproof. Can’t be targeted with here, you may use
spells. its second ability
● Indestructible. Can’t die. on one of your
● Lifelink. If they survive dealing lands.
damage, they gain that much HP
back.
● Menace, Fear, Intimidate. Can’t be
willingly fought alone. Too scary. This bastardly
● Ninjutsu. If you’re not in a scene, you little creature eats
can pay the mana cost to reveal that important things.
any ally was you in disguise
You can pay a
● Protection. You cannot be affected
little bit of mana
by the named thing.
to direct it
● Reach. Has some way to attack far
towards a specific
away or up high targets.
thing you want
● Trample. When they kill someone
destroyed, but
with an attack, they can immediately
you’ll probably
take the attack action again.
never see it again.
● Vigilance. Cannot be surprised or
ambushed.
Creating Adventures
Using Magic cards as a base for the game
allows improvisation on the fly. You can grab
a handful of Red cards to create a mountain
dungeon, or some Ravnica cards to create a
city adventure.
Dungeons
A dungeon need not be a literal
underground maze. It’s just a shorthand for
a hostile adventure locale.
Pick a creature to be the Boss of your
dungeon. Someone who controls the entire
area. They determine the Colors of the
dungeon. The color of the Boss and its allied
colors are Hostile. The other two colors are
Friendly.
Take some Lands of your choice and arrange
them face down. Each Land is a room in the
dungeon. Choose a room to put the Boss
card in, and one to be the entrance.
Take about 3 nonland cards per room and
shuffle them. Deal them out facedown to
each room, putting more cards on rooms
closer to the Boss.
Hostile Rooms. Lands of Hostile colors are
themselves Hostile. Hostile creatures here
are your foes. Friendly colored creatures
here are likely captives in some way.
Friendly colored items are being guarded.
If the foes have a low CMC, the GM may
include more than one of them. Track HP
separately.
Anything that could be used by your
enemies is equipped to them. After you
defeat a hostile room, you may loot Artifacts
and Friendly colored Instants and Sorceries
(which are spellbooks in chests).
If there are no creatures here, this is a trap
room. The trap can cast any Instants or
Sorceries and it uses Artifacts against you.
Friendly Rooms. Lands of Friendly colors
are safe. Friendly creatures here are allies,
possibly running shops. Hostile colored
Creatures are neutral, restrained, or
apathetic.
If there are no creatures here, it is a
Treasure room. Instants and Sorceries are
spellbooks, Artifacts are safely in chests.
Contested Rooms. Lands that produce no
colors or produce both Friendly and Hostile
colors are Contested. Separate all cards into
Hostile and Friendly, and those two sides are
in battle with one another. Colorless cards
go to the Hostile side. If only one side has
creatures, then everything from the other
side is used as a trap.
The Big Score. Draw 3-4 cards and set them
aside. These are the treasures the boss keeps
in a chest in the room with them.
Multicolored Bosses. There are always 3
Hostile colors and 2 Friendly colors. For
multicolored bosses, choose the most logical
3. If a boss was Green and Blue, also choose
White to be hostile (the color between). The
creature types, art, and flavor of the Boss
card can influence this as well.
Settlements
To create a random settlement, draw 14
cards and a basic land. If it is a town, discard
any cards with CMC 4 or up. If it is a city,
discard any with CMC 6 or up. If it is a
metropolis, keep every card.
Creature cards are important inhabitants.
They may have quests or shops.
Instants, Sorceries, and small Artifacts are
things you might be able to buy or earn in
town.
Each land is an area in the city itself.
Enchantments affect the whole city, and
large Artifacts are important objects. They
might be hidden in vaults
Example Dungeon
This is a simple three room dungeon, for illustrative purposes. Most will be more complex.

Our first room is a contested room. There are 3 surviving crossbowmen trying to press deeper into
the mountain, and 6 surviving enemy goblins. The goblins have the advantage, since the
crossbowmen can’t hit them unless they leave their barricade to attack.

The guardian of the gateway to the Boss’ lair has set up a dastardly trap. A powerful
enchantment will activate as soon as you enter the room.At the beginning of each round, the
players must sacrifice a White or Green permanent of their choice. Do they sacrifice a surviving
crossbowman? An item they control?
Note that I’ve changed the upkeep trigger from the start of a scene to the start of a round. GM’s
should feel comfortable bending the rules like this to make encounters more interesting.
To make matters worse, he has placed a barrier between you and him. You’ll have to destroy it to
get to him.
Luckily there is a sliver of hope. The enchantment hurts him at the start of each round. 1 life the
first time, 2 life the second. He can use his Lifelink to regain some life, but it will eventually
succumb to his own magics
Example, Continued: The Boss Room

A deadly dragon sits in a massive cave. It has 12

Life, 5 Power, and 5 Toughness, making it a
deadly foe. Not to mention it can fly and
increase its power.
It knows two spells, one to deal direct damage,
and one to increase the power of his minions. It
has 8 Wastes and 4 Mountains with which to
cast spells. If you gain life, it can even return its
damage spell to its hand.

It also has two brutal little servants. Two goblins with high power and haste. Between them and
Balduvian Rage, you’re likely to take a big hit right at the start of the fight.
Finally, the purpose of your mission. Danitha is the Knight you’ve been sent to rescue. It lost a lot
of lackeys capturing her. She’s a true hero, and her men recruited you to save her. She’s chained up,
awaiting execution. She has 10 HP, but knows no spells.

The Hoard
Two artifacts and a
spellbook sit in an
ornate chest. Once
you deal with the
dragon, you can loot
it.
Alternate Rules and
Further Inspiration
There are many ways to expand this system
once you’re used to the system.
Dungeon Design
The rules above are for quickly creating
dungeons. If you want to add more flair, here
are some ideas.
Multiple Floors. A dungeon can have more
than one floor, with a boss on each level.
I use two common tokens, like Servos and
Thopters, to represent the stairs.
Multiple Entrances. There can be multiple
known or hidden ways into a dungeon. This
is especially handy for larger dungeons.
Factions. Rather than 1 faction with 3
hostile and 2 friendly colors, you can have
multiple factions in a dungeon. Divide the
colors between them. Your players can then
decide which factions, if any, to side with.
Each faction should have a Boss.
Dual lands become the fronts of their battles
against each other. Trilands can even be
three way fights.
Central Artifacts. A Large Artifact is a great
centerpiece for a dungeon. It can be in the
possession of a Boss, who will use it for ill.
Or it can be a race between factions to see
who can take control of it first.
Nonbasic Lands
In the base game, you can only control Basic
Lands. If you want to include non-basics,
use this rule.
Start including some non-basic lands as
items. These represent Mana Scrolls. You
use them like a normal spellbook, after
which they burn up. They let you replace
one of your Wastes with that land. At a
store, they cost 5 treasure.
World Maps
You can also use Land cards to create a
world map. Rather that factions, the land
types represent biomes.
Each land represents about a 5x5 km square.
You can travel about five of them in a day on
foot. Feel free to adjust the scale to your
needs.
You can use the art on a card to decide what
it will be. Sort them into Wilderness and
Landmarks. Most basic lands are Wilderness,
but some such as the Ravnica lands depict
cities.
Building the Map. Try to mostly put lands
next to lands of a similar type, to create
swaths of similar land. One lone swamp in
the middle of the forest adds intrigue, but
only when there is a larger cohesiveness to
the map.
Use the Wilderness cards to build the
natural world. The mountain ranges, the
lakes and rivers, the wide plains.
Then, dot that landscape with Landmark
cards. Mostly these will be settlements. A
large city could take up 5 or 6 lands, each
being a district.
Landmarks will also mark your dungeon
entrances.
Encounters. You can put cards face down
under lands to represent random
encounters. A creature might be a stranger
who lives there, or a deadly roadside
monster. An artifact or spell might be
hidden treasure, that players must work to
reveal.
Landmarks will have far more cards. You
may want to note them down their contents
and store them separately, rather than keep
them under the map.